Biography - Burl Finkelstein
Burl was a member of the rocket club in high school. Rocket flying in the small fields and schoolyards of suburban New York gave him the belief that if you didn't see the rocket hanging from a tree after the first or second flight you were likely to find a four leaf clover the same day.
After attending Woodstock, obtaining an engineering degree, and getting a day job, (all of which are mind-altering experiences) he fell out of touch with rocketry for a couple of decades. Burl moved to Georgia to be the project engineer to build a manufacturing plant, and eventually became vice president of engineering at KASON industries. He maintained a wide variety of outside interests, none of which included rockets.
His wife, Joanna, picks up the tale:
After competitive shooting (IPSC, IHMSA and bowling pin), Enduro Kart racing, skydiving,
flying light aircraft, collecting guitars and playing rock music ... of course I said yes when
Burl just wanted to fly a few little rockets from the hobby store ... for our children.
Two months later he had 15 rockets ... then 50 rockets... and then "look dear there are bigger
rockets". Like any good wife I said "well ok, maybe a Level 1 certification would be neat".
Then Burl said "you really needed a bigger V2" (my favorite rocket at the time) ... oh, and
maybe he should just get his Level 2 certification as long as he was building a bigger rocket.
I am not really sure how those next 30 rockets even got in the house. And the next thing I
knew we were at this awesome launch in Orangeburg, South Carolina and somehow (it must
have been the heat) I said "Burl if you really want you can get your Level 3 certification".
He was ordering parts before we even made it home from the launch.
All this from one tiny little Estes purple shiny rocket...it just seemed so harmless...sigh.
RTV note: We heard the legend of the wife who actually nudged her husband into High Power and even suggests his next upscale projects, and we were temporarily convinced that she was fictitious. (Name another wife who has asked for a 3x Silver Comet for her birthday!) We were eventually convinced that she is real -- but come to think of it, we've never actually met her in person....
A true Renaissance man, Burl's latest distractions are potato guns and the completion of coursework required for a doctorate of jurisprudence (that's a law degree, y'all). Burl will once again hurl himself headlong into rocketry once those trival pursuits are concluded.
Click [HERE!] check out a full page of Burl's coolest rockets!.
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